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Indian economy and people need a lot of old and new technologies used wisely to prosper and manage contention for resources. Some of these are emerging stuff like low cost salt water desalination, low footprint low pollution light manufacturing and some are age old but seldom applied stuff like drip irrigation, rain water harvesting, solar panels on roof to heat water....

you NRI's can play a good role here, embedded as you are in the leading univs and cos all around the world.

Please use this thread for news and discussion of technolgies and tools that can solve indian problems - be it literacy, communication, crops, biodiversity, pollution, governance, housing, R&D , security ....

Ghaziabad-based SAS Motors Limited has developed a tractor priced at just Rs 99,000, which is less than half of what the cheapest tractor available in the market now costs.

The company says that Angad, the 22 HP tractor, is also fuel-efficient and will reduce fuel costs by 25 per cent.

SAS Motors said the tractor will also help farmers save up to 60 per cent on maintenance and it can be assembled at the tehsil level and repaired by any cycle mechanic.

The company also plans to introduce a range of tractors, farm implements, and rural transportation vehicles that for the first time in the country use cutting-edge technology suitable for use in small and medium-sized Indian farms.

Coupled with the low-cost financing that SAS Motors has sought from the government, a farmer will need to pay an instalment of only Rs 1,500 per month to replace age-old bullock driven ploughs with an Angad tractor.

In addition, farmers will be able to transport produce directly from the field to the market, breaking the stifling monopoly of middlemen, thus increasing their profits and income, the company said in a media release.

SAS Motors said that once operational, the initiative is likely to generate big employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for thousands of trained yet unemployed 'agricultural engineers' in the form of sales and services dealerships across the country.

"Achieving an optimum price-performance mix in farm mechanisation has been the crying need of the rural sector. Angad is a humble initiative towards achieving this objective," said Ravindra Kumar, managing director, SAS Motors Limited, and the architect of the Angad project.

"So far tractors have been sold like cars, as big brands. Our dream is to turn them into commodities that can be assembled, repaired and deployed around every nook and corner of the smallest villages in the country," said Siddharth Kumar, director, SAS Motors Ltd.

The 22 HP Angad 240-D tractor uses a direct injection fuel-efficient horizontal diesel engine with catalytic converter. It is designed to suit a large variety of implements, crops, and soil conditions. It can be used in various farm operations as well as for irrigation and water transportation.

The range of Angad farm implements that the company plans to launch soon include rice transplanters and mini combine harvesters.

The company's self-propelled Angad 150 Power Tiller comes with a 15 HP engine and can be attached to diverse range of agricultural equipments and is equipped with a rotavator. It is priced at Rs 65,000.

The Angad Rotary Cultivator (Rotavator) can perform the functions of a disc harrow and a plough in a swift single motion. It is offered as a standard accessory with Angad 240 D tractor at a price of Rs 15,000.

"The tractor `Angad' has 90 per cent components from China. While we are sourcing the technology and many equipment from the company Shefing, the engines are being sourced from Liadong,'' SAS Motors Managing Director, Ravindra Kumar, told reporters here.

The company, which has its manufacturing unit in Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh), and is looking to expand to six more locations across the country, expects to start selling the vehicles shortly.

Mr. Kumar, who is an exporter of hi-fashion leather and textiles apparel, said he would be making an investment of close to Rs. 2.5 crores in the whole project, which includes setting up plants in other locations like West Bengal, Chennai and Maharashtra.

Asked whether any of the Chinese companies had stake in the venture, he said SAS Motors just had a `technology cooperation' arrangement with them.

The tractors have received the required government clearances, including for emission and roadworthiness.

Giving a demonstration here in the presence of the Union Agriculture Minister, Sharad Pawar, and the Rural Development Minister, Raghuvansh Prasad, he said the Ghaziabad facility had a capacity to produce 50 units a day.

The company claimed at below Rs. 1 lakh, the `Angad' tractor is half the price of the cheapest tractor available in the market. ``Fuel and maintenance costs will also go down by 25 per cent and 60 per cent respectively,'' Mr. Kumar said, adding that the vehicle suits a large variety of implements, crop and soil types and could be used for irrigation as well as transportation.

``When coupled with low-cost financing, that is being sought from the government, a farmer will need to pay an instalment of just Rs. 1,500 a month to replace bullock-driven ploughs with our tractor,'' he said. — PTI

Aug. 26: Ranit Barua, a school student, was excited about the newly renovated Nehru Park in the city, thrown open to the public recently. However, a visit to the park one afternoon left the excited youngster on the verge of tears.

While Ranit’s brother pranced his way in, Ranit was forced to remain outside, as his wheelchair could not move in through the entrance.

His mother, Jaya, said, “I looked at the children playing in the park and I was so distressed at my son’s plight that I decided to return home right away.”

Ranit is not an isolated case. The physically challenged remains an invisible minority, as making the city disabled-friendly is last on the list of priorities of an insensitive government.

“We don’t see the disabled regularly at public places, roads, parks and buses as they cannot access these places. Even the newly-constructed buildings, let alone the old ones, do not have any provision for the disabled,” said Ketaki Bardalai, an activist.

Repeated appeals to the authorities for a disabled-friendly Nehru Park and an accessible secretariat complex have fallen on deaf ears.

Prasanna Kumar Pincha, regional manager of Action Aid India and a visually-impaired man himself, filed a PIL in Gauhati High Court three years back on the indifference towards the disabled in the northeastern states.

“I had asked them to make the new capital complex of Assam barrier-free and accessible. But apart from verbal assurances, we have not seen anything substantial,” said Pincha.
The authorities are slack in spite of the fact that the central public works department has issued specific guidelines and space standards for barrier-free structures for the disabled and the senior citizens.

The guidelines were issued according to the provisions of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1996.

K.K. Hazarika, secretary in the social welfare department, who also holds the additional portfolio of commissioner for disability, said, “As the nodal agency, we issue instructions to the various departments from time to time. We can also act on any complaint we receive. However, we have not received any complaint so far, apart from certain demands from various organisations for the disabled.”

A.K. Absar Hazarika, deputy commissioner of Kamrup (metropolitan), said a separate entrance has been earmarked for the disabled at the DC’s office in Guwahati. “We will make it barrier-free and accessible for the disabled. We have also issued instructions to the PWD to make the government buildings accessible.”

The Employment Exchange at Rehabari has registered 5,000 disabled candidates from 1998 to December 2003. However, there are no accurate figures on the number of disabled people in the city.

Appropriate signs at public places, warnings and route information are also very important. “A person in a wheelchair will be less than 1,200 mm tall. A person, who is shortsighted, needs contrasting textures along walkways and audible signs at dangerous areas. Signs should be useful to everyone, easily visible at the eye level, readable by moving the fingers and well-lit for night identification,” she added.

“Provisions have been made in this act for ramps in public buildings, adaptation of toilets for wheelchair users, Braille symbols and auditory signals in elevators,” said Bardalai.

Restaurants, too, should make provisions for the disabled, especially as the trend of eating out has become popular among the people. “Space should be provided at the tables for people on wheelchairs,” said Raj Bora, a wheelchair-user.

Though there are several shopping malls coming up in the city, none of them are disabled-friendly. The community centres should also have toilets that can be used by the disabled.

“There are many public conveniences coming up in the city. We will speak to the district administration to make some of them disabled-friendly,” said Arman Ali, an entrepreneur with locomotor disability.

MT Singha wrote:Indian economy and people need a lot of old and new technologies used wisely to prosper and manage contention for resources. Some of these are emerging stuff like low cost salt water desalination, low footprint low pollution light manufacturing and some are age old but seldom applied stuff like drip irrigation, rain water harvesting, solar panels on roof to heat water....

you NRI's can play a good role here, embedded as you are in the leading univs and cos all around the world.

Please use this thread for news and discussion of technolgies and tools that can solve indian problems - be it literacy, communication, crops, biodiversity, pollution, governance, housing, R&D , security ....

This has to be a joke. Assembling is NOT the same as developing. What they have done is merely brought crappy parts from china and assembled them here to get some tax relief. I have a feeling SAS motors is an unscrupulous trader of third grade equipment. Farmers will get carried away by the price and after 2 seasons realize that they need a new one. This is the fact of the moment - bad technology, bad equipment, bad fertilizers, bad seeds. Leads to horrible productivity and high costs. Farmers dont gain nor does the economy. First step is to ban chinese crapotech from entering India.

Another fact: There is no dearth of unscrupulous businessmen from the Delhi/Haryana area selling crappy chinese equipment to farmers all over India. Their modus operandi is simple - the tech is so bad that it costs peanuts. They sell it at even lower then the said price. The remainder goes as bribe to the agri babus in the state governments.

The French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroën sought to strengthen its green credentials yesterday with the launch of a new system that cuts petrol consumption and emissions by automatically switching off the engine at traffic lights or in queues.

PSA says the "Stop & Start" system cuts fuel consumption by 10% in normal city driving and by up to 15% in traffic jams.

The system, which works with a semi-automatic gear box, cuts in as the driver brakes. As the car stops the engine is switched to stand-by mode, where it remains as long as there is pressure on the brake pedal. The engine restarts once the accelerator is depressed.

PSA says CO2 emissions, which the company describes as "the greatest threat to the environment", are cut by similar levels to fuel consumption and that noise levels are also reduced. The first model to be fitted with the system will be the Citroën C3. Other models will be equipped with the system at a later date. Stop & Start will be available in the UK next year.

Jean-Martin Folz, PSA chief executive, said: "Judging by some of the traffic conditions in some British cities, I would say there are going to be interesting savings in fuel costs."

human bio waste in India usually goes into septic tanks and hence unharvestable unlike in west where they feed into sewers . The materials turn greyish after a while and quite interesting to watch when a sewer grating blows up during heavy rains and spills all that crap on road. villagers do it sometimes in the fields and whos going to collect all that.

in short, not a whole lot of landfill waste is generated in india
because extent of packaging is less and ragpickers harvest everything (at great risk to their own health). There is also no real control on how and what materials are recycled back into the system. for eg plastics with toxic matter maybe used to make the sick looking blue bags vegetable vendors use, or maybe in chappals.

mmmm.. good points. sounds like we need lots of investment for infrastructure and behavioral science to help denizans.

re-architecting towns and villages should not be ruled out as just the thought that we have not changed anything for ages for that matter. so, even if you have turnup holy grails on the way, it can only help creating better history.

heard story on NPR market place last night about Twenty-one-year old Stanford grad Ginger Turner, with Ignite Innovations, trying to sell solar powered lamps in gujurat . They are trying to replace the kerosone lamps.

she was asking Rs 1500 ( $30) . The villagers said we will pay in installaments and they are worreid about repair and maintaince..

We already have cheap slar powered lamps. I dont think we need to import them, that too from USA. If they do may be then its far more cheap than what we produce in India. I think the GoI even gives subsidy for installing solar lamps.

Solar Photovoltaics Programme* PV systems of about 83 MW aggregate capacity (about 920,000 systems), have been installed for various applications in the country, including Export of about 29 MW SPV product.

*Under the PV program of MNES, about 6,10,,000 systems aggregating to over 20 MW have been installed. This includes 3,85,000 solar lanterns; 1,80,000 home lighting systems; 41,000 street lighting systems, 4204 water pumping systems and of about 1.2 MWp aggregate capacity of stand alone power plants/packs.

Foks is there a cheap and simple way to get rid of arsenic in ground water ?

there is a layer of arsenic between the deep acquifier and the ground level under bangladesh and parts of NE and people are suffering badly. surface water is there in plenty but is contaminated by organic matter and again no cheap way to purify it in villages.

maybe boiling surface water after passing it through a sand , gravel and charcoal tank is better than drinking tube well water ?

The villages (not just individual houses) that have been rebuilt are all seisemically strengthened. It was a pre-req for funding and construction. They are NOT earthquake proof...but they can now withstand a quake of the Latur'93 magnitude for long enuf to allow its occupants to escape.

Most of the deaths in Latur and Gujrat happened due to the fact that the quake was at night and most people were sleeping and did NOT have enough time to react to what was happening.

Most importantly the earthquake occured at a 'previously UNKNOWN' seismic thrust fault.

MT Singha wrote:Foks is there a cheap and simple way to get rid of arsenic in ground water ?

there is a layer of arsenic between the deep acquifier and the ground level under bangladesh and parts of NE and people are suffering badly. surface water is there in plenty but is contaminated by organic matter and again no cheap way to purify it in villages.

maybe boiling surface water after passing it through a sand , gravel and charcoal tank is better than drinking tube well water ?

They say that necessity is the mother of all inventions, and this old adage fits perfectly into the following story. Jagdeep Dangi, a physically challenged youth hailing from a small town in Madhya Pradesh was a victim of the (English) language barrier that left many unfortunate citizens in this country in complete technological darkness.

So instead of waiting for the rest of the country to wakeup and address his problem, Dangi developed a fully functional Web browser in Hindi for the benefit of the countless Net-savvy Hindi-speaking populace in the country.

Sharing with CXOtoday the inspiration behind developing the browser, Dangi stated, “Being a Hindi medium student, I have faced the same difficulties, which scores of other vernacular medium students at some time or the other have faced -- the perennial language block of English. This problem turned more acute especially when I was pursuing my computer engineering degree. And that was the turning point that inspired me to develop this Hindi Web browser.” The browser is replete with the functionalities of Internet Explorer but all in Hindi (Devanagari). In addition, it also has extra functions such as opening multiple files, saving files, a search bar, slides and auto history viewers.

One of the key functionalities of the browser is the word translator. All that the user has to do is to click on any word online or offline and it would instantly translate the same in Hindi along with the correct pronunciation.

The browser also offers two type of translators -- one is local and the other is a global word translator that is compatible with all Windows applications online or offline.

Dangi has used object-oriented methodology in coding with Visual Basic, creating 1027 KB lines of codes with all program blocks and algorithms being his own (Absolutely no copy-paste’s). Developed single-handedly, it took him more than three years to make the application.

The browser can run on all Windows operating systems right from 95, 98, 2000 to ME, NT and Windows XP. However, it is not compatible with Unix or Linux.

Disclosing his other achievements, Dangi stated that he has also developed an English to Hindi or vice-versa digital dictionary, which currently supports 20,320 words and allows users to add more words as per their requirements. This dictionary enables users to search for synonym words either in English or Hindi within a few seconds.

Though Dangi has applied for a patent, he is uncertain how to market and release the product commercially and is looking for guidance.

With a B.E. from SATI College in Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, 26-year old Dangi revealed that he houses a mini-library of 400-500 computer and engineering books, which keep his innovative mind always occupied; a diversion that is extremely necessary as his mobility is severely restricted due to handicapped lower limbs.

Though short on money and resources, Dangi, the son of a farmer, nurtures a dream of developing an entire operating system in Hindi. However, until then, he is content with savoring the success of his browser.

Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, November 5
The first Indian vaccine to prevent a virulent form of diarrhoea that kills hundreds of children every year is ready for clinical trial.

Developed over 10 years by researchers at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences here and the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, the vaccine, isolated from the bodies of newborn babies, has passed laboratory tests and will now be tested on humans.

"If all goes well, the vaccine will be available in the markets in two to three years," M.K. Bhan, secretary of the Department of Science and Technology, told IANS.

"It will be an oral vaccine that will have to be administered to children two to three times. And it will be exceptionally cheap as well," he said.

Diarrhoea is the second most common cause of death among children in India. This vaccine will prevent the disease caused by the rotavirus, which accounts for one-third of all diarrhoea deaths.

The newly developed vaccine contains the "chemically live, attenuated form of the original virus", extracted from the body of newborns.

Scientists observed that rotavirus also infected babies, but did not kill them as it occurred in a passive form.

When taken from the body of the infant and injected into the body of a child, it helps the child develop antibodies that will provide it protection for life - a pattern similar to the small pox vaccine.

"India is now developing as a global centre for basic level vaccine industry, since the Western world does not consider it profitable anymore," said N.K. Ganguly, director general of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Ganguly will be presiding over the 92nd Indian Science Congress Jan 3-7 in Ahmedabad, focussing on "Health Technology as Fulcrum of Development for the Nation".

Over 7,000 scientists, top industrialists and academicians from all over the world are expected to attend the meet.

MT Singha wrote:Foks is there a cheap and simple way to get rid of arsenic in ground water ?

there is a layer of arsenic between the deep acquifier and the ground level under bangladesh and parts of NE and people are suffering badly. surface water is there in plenty but is contaminated by organic matter and again no cheap way to purify it in villages.

maybe boiling surface water after passing it through a sand , gravel and charcoal tank is better than drinking tube well water ?

I saw in New Delhi in January a bunch of guys softening up tar for road work by garlanding the tar drum with used bicycle and car tires and lighting them up... in freakin New Delhi, where vehicles had to go through a multi million dollar upgrade for CNG compliance.

i was reading an article in the local newspaper a while ago (few months) about an incinerator which convertes the waste into plasma. I do not remember the details but basically it's very small, (it's first applications were for naval ships and cruiseliners where large waste management was becoming a problem). It's also much more efficient, environmentally friendly than your normal incinerators and reduces the waste into a very small amount of slag. i'm sketchy on the details, see if you can find it on the web somewhere. I think they had already installed it on a cruiseliner and have orders to install more.

corDECT--the wireless access system-developed by Midas Communications http://www.midascomm.com has been widely successful not only in India but other developing coutries like Brazil in providing the proverbial "last mile" connection. Analog Devices Inc owns the patent of ICs that go in corDect. But all the system-level stuff is done in India.
My colleague at ADI(Mass.) was one of the founders of this company which was incubated in IIT Madras(I guess Ashok Jhunjhunwala was the brain behind this). During his recent trip to India he visited different startup cos and labs working in EE domain in the lower triangle(chennai-hyd-bangalore) of great Rhomboid. And he was really upbeat about the kind of research/development work going on there.

During my last visit to India, I was thrilled to see corDECT WLL deployed in a village of just 200 people(there were 10 phone owners in that village...5% is pretty good teledensity)in remote part of marathwada/telangana border.

corDECT technology has spawned another Communications company n-Logue http://www.n-logue.com providing internet connectivity to rural areas and small towns. It is active in Maharashtra(baramati area) and TN.